Friday morning’s “Fox & Friends” segment got heated after host Lawrence Jones argued with the network’s chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin over Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments.
Harris was speaking at the Munich Security Conference and discussed the importance of funding Ukraine amidst tense battles over border security funding and foreign aid. Harris noted the death of Russian activist Alexei Navalny, blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Navalny, 47, died at a prison colony above the Arctic Circle after he allegedly felt unwell and lost consciousness. Navalny was serving a 19-year prison sentence based on charges of corruption and extremism. He previously survived an assassination attempt in 2020 after a nerve agent was allegedly put into his cup of tea at an airport.
Jones took aim at Harris’ comments, arguing that “the view that she says that some people want to be isolations” is a “mischaracterization” of people who simply want to secure the nation’s own borders before securing another nation’s border.
The group then brought Griffin in, who called Harris’ statement blaming Putin for Nalvany’s death “very strong.”
“It was also notable to me because I’ve covered many Munich conferences, security conferences over the years, and usually the leaders, American leaders are addressing Europeans, addressing allies. This had a domestic message, as Lawrence pointed out, and it was a very strong domestic message. And it talked about how Americans have a choice to make right now about whether to be global leaders, about America’s role in the world. You heard the vice president talk about whether it is in America’s interest to fight for democracy or accept the rise of dictators. That’s the message that she is sending to a domestic audience back here that is debating whether to send aid to Ukraine, whether to stand up to Vladimir Putin or whether to appease Vladimir Putin.”
Griffin then provided some historical context of the Munich conference before Jones jumped in.
“The Biden administration and many members, including Republicans on Capitol Hill, have been making the case for why aid to Ukraine, military aid, weapons to Ukraine are so important in terms of sending a message to Vladimir Putin that he cannot erase land borders, he cannot erase countries, he cannot gobble up a country like Ukraine. He cannot change the rules-based order or the map —”
“But Jennifer —” Jones chimed in.
“Lawrence —”
“Respectfully —” he continued.
“Lawrence, just a minute —” Griffin shot back.
“She’s phrasing it as a binary choice. And that’s not what many of the members of Congress are saying. They’re saying, ‘Yes, we will talk about Ukraine. Yes, we’ll talk about Israel. But can we put on the table securing the border first?'” Jones said.
“Lawrence, there was a Senate bill to secure the border that the House wouldn’t take up. So that is a false comparison in terms of the choice that’s being made,” Griffin argued.
“No that’s not false, because there are people that have been very critical of the bill —”
“There was a Senate bill, Lawrence —”
“And say that it would not secure the border,” Jones said.
“There was a Senate bill negotiated by Senator Lankford of Oklahoma and the House would not take it up. Now they’re trying to revisit and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, he has put forward a way to bring the border back into it. It’s very strong language from what I saw this morning, but we can’t say that nobody wants to talk about the border in this Ukraine legislation. And that’s what the Senate sent to the House,” Griffin said.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade jumped in to say the border has never been worse and that foreign funding was leverage for the border crisis before the segment ended.
The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would appropriate $95 billion in fresh military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after several Republican senators tried to delay the passage with speeches in opposition. An initial proposal that coupled foreign aid with border security was shot down by Republicans after they said the border policies were not strong enough. A new version of the bill was then passed that only included foreign aid.
Watch another testy ‘Fox & Friends’ exchange:
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